About GameSetWatch

GameSetWatch.com is the alt.video game weblog and sister site of Gamasutra.com. It is dedicated to collecting curious links and media for offbeat and oft-ignored games from consoles old and new, as well as from the digital download, iOS, and indie spaces.

Some of the fun, informal answers include the differences between the Xbox and PS2 versions of the game, which is OutRun 2 plus the SP tracks plus FUN ("Biggest difference is the controllers, but we've tweaked them with the help of AM2 to keep the right feel and control"), and info on the expanded Mission Mode ("We hope to divide opinion once again on the mission mode. We've split the missions into Heart Attack type stuff and Racing missions, as we know not everyone likes the same things as us. We've added kittens and lions as well as the obligatory fruit and there's even a beach ball to dribble.")

Finally, UKR would not be UKR without a little Richard Jacques worship, but unfortunately Sumo's Steven Lycett hasn't met him. Still, he does a good job of guessing: "I imagine he's really smartly dressed but with pop star hair. I bet he hangs round with top models and smokes fags with a cigarette holder. In fact I think I hate him for that."

Gizmodo wittily claims: "Every day millions—or one or two—XBoxes wash up onto our beaches where they die an excruciating and horrible death. They are lured to the sands by the lights of million-dollar condos and teenage jackanapes involving beer and bonfires", but as commenters vaguely spot, it's likely the recent floods in Marin County that dumped the Xbox from a home, down a local river and out to sea.

But we have a better explanation - the giant jellyfish invading Japan of late? We heard they're shock Microsoft-trained troops importing Xbox 360s, buried inside their poisonous bodies, to the East by sea, where they will disgorge the consoles onto beaches to breed and multiply, whether the Japanese buy them or not. This poor Xbox? It's just left over from the U.S. test program, but the caustic libertarian media atmosphere of San Francisco made its jellyfish host perish and decompose, as the chanting sounds of 'M$, M$, M$' filled the air. Honest.

Are we bored of end of year awards now? Probably, but let's cast our eye over the final few. Firstly, Eurogamer has been running its Top 50 for the year, with plenty of insightful commentary from the whole crew. The top title was announced today, and even if it's not out til February in Europe, Tim Schafer is likely delighted.

Elsewhere, fellow GSW-er GeekOnStun has released his 2005 Video Game Awards, and there are 5 joint games of the year, all superduperspecial. Oh, and much kudos for awarding Takashi Iizuka of Sonic Team the 'Best Smile Under Difficult Circumstances' - dude, Shadow, ouch.

Finally, we never specifically mentioned here, but a number of GameSetWatch editors and colleagues have posted their Top 3 games of the year over at Gamasutra. Among others, Brandon Sheffield waxes lyrical about obscure homebrew and arcade titles (surprise!), Frank Cifaldi plumps for a few choice cuts, Simon Carless (that's me!) digs on a little Katamari, and Brandon Boyer loves up the neglected Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath.

Bearman is particularly concerned about how games might balance the "mindless" but visceral fun of the latest Hulk title with some deeper emotions, commenting:

"A monstrous green corporealized Id with torn-up cutoffs is fairly pointless without the fragile Ego from which it sprang. If violence is fulfilling as a release, that’s a nuance alien to the narrow vocabulary of most video games. Senseless stealth missions as David Banner are not the answer to making a more rounded game, but punching buildings ad nauseum doesn’t do the trick either." Amen to that.

Ever feel like today's first-person shooters have one dimension too many? Perhaps the answer to your dreams is the infringeworthy "Halo Zero," a 2D platformer made by a team of French indie developers in homage to the popular Xbox shooter series Halo.

Halo Zero has yoinked the main 3D visuals of the original game series and re-interpreted them for platform-style play, simplifying tactics into an up/down, left/right dance appealling to nostalgia-wallowing retro gamers... or those who haven't upgraded their PC since the 1990s. Although the project is non-commercial, I'd be shocked if it wasn't shut down soon. Get your download while you can, or at the very least, check out Halo Zero's interesting screen-shots.

If, like us, you prowl around your local video game store looking for weird Eastern European-developed family games nobody else cares about, you might have come across Shamu's Deep Sea Adventures, an officially Sea World-licensed adventure title for (deep breath!) PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, DS, and GBA, from Activision Value. As the official website explains: "All is not well within Shamu's beloved SeaWorld Adventure Park - Poseidon wants to steal the magic of the park away from Shamu and SeaWorld." Damn you, Poseidon!

The screenshots show off a surprisingly lush Ecco-esque seascape, and TeamXbox's review reveals 720p support for the Xbox version, calling it "a pretty slick little kid’s game". Plus, in a nefarious piece of 'alternative' marketing, perhaps your tykes found out about the $29.99 game from their teacher, thanks to the LearningWorks lesson plan [.ZIP] posted on the Shamu homepage - sneaky, Activision, sneaky.